The market for the mass production of lenses for new highly efficient and cost effective optic solutions, such as those involving light emitting diodes (LEDs), is expected to grow significantly in the near future as they replace older, less efficient lighting systems. In order to meet the rising demand, suppliers are looking to develop new ways of manufacturing lenses on a larger scale.
TIR (total internal reflection) collimating lenses are commonly used for applications such as LED lighting and are typically produced using injection molding processes. Injection molding, the most common precision method for mass production of optical elements, provides means to produce lenses in high volume but is subject to high costs and long lead times associated with the making of required tooling. Additionally, injection molding equipment requires significant capital investment and requires significant energy to operate. Some disadvantages of this process are expensive equipment investment, potentially high operating costs, and the need to design parts in such a manner that they can be non-destructively separated from tooling after molding. Tooling restrictions of molded parts limit the designs possible with molded parts.
There is need for alternative design and manufacturing methods which can shorten development time of new optical components, provide lower fixed and operating costs, and provide capabilities to for new types of designs.